Thursday, February 26, 2009

[Ed. Note: Sorry folks, the content is going to be somewhat fluffy today, as I've got a lot of (actual) work to do.]

Here are some pictures from Huggins-Stengel Field in St. Petersburg, the site of Yankees Spring Training from 1925-1942, 1946-1950, and 1952-1961. After the Yankees vacated the site, it was used by the Mets from 1961 to 1988, then by the Orioles and the (at the time Devil) Rays in the 90's.

Legend has it that the reason the Yankees moved to St. Pete from New Orleans after the 1924 season was to eliminate the temptation for the Babe to carouse around Bourbon Street. The Babe was said to have lofted a blast into the alligator infested Crescent Lake some 500 feet from home plate, as was Dave Kingman.

The park was first known as Crescent Lake Field but was changed to Miller Huggins Field in 1931. The name was altered to honor Casey Stengel as well in 1963.

The book Haunted Baseball: Ghosts, Curses, Legends and Unexplained Events, by Mickey Bradley and Dan Gordon details some of the supposedly supernatural occurrences at the field, if you are into that sort of thing. They say, sometimes, when it's just you and a couple other equally irrational/superstitious people, you can still smell Miller Huggins' cigar smoke.

4 comments:

AS A FORMER GROUNDS KEEPER OF THIS FAMOUS FIELDIT WAS A GREAT TIME IN MY LIFE. EVERYONE MUST STOP BY AND JUST SIT AND LISTEN,YES THE FIELD TALKS. IT IS JUST A BASEBALL MUST FOR REAL FANS.I MYSELF GO BACK AND SIT FOR HOURS. BEST TIME IS SUNSET. ENJOY!!

I know this is old, but maybe you will respond. I have read a few places that said Kingman and others hit the ball into the lake. However, the Mets playes at AL Lang field as far as I know, a separate stadium downtown. Let me know.ThanksChadchadjmonty@hotmail.com

When Spring Training was still in downtown St. Petersburg, the larger (seating, anyways) Al Lang Field was used for games, while the nearby Huggins-Stengel field was a "practice field". Thus, Huggins-Stengel field would be used for "real games" (albeit Spring games) only on those "split-squad" occasions.

Never-the-less, Babe Ruth & Dave Kingman very likely both hit balls out of that park (along with many others) and into the lake. Perhaps not as you may imagine them, but home runs to be sure!

BTW: I live about 3 blocks from Huggins-Stengel Field and can't wait for some other baseball entity to realize how awesome the area is for Spring Training ball!

Though I lived in Norfolk VA, I was lucky enough - at age 12 - to become the batboy for the Yankees at this field in 1960. During a family visit to my grandmother (who lived several blocks away), I would hike down to the field every morning to hang on the fence and watch the Yankees work out. One day Pete Sheehy came out the clubhouse entrance, looked down the fence, pointed to me (the tallest), and called, "Come here, kid. I need a new batboy." Five minutes later I was inside the fence and wearing the pinstripes (a numbered uniform that had belonged to the recently cut, and diminutive pitcher Bobby Shantz). The next 3 weeks were just heaven.